Comments

Your feedback is important to us!

We invite all our readers to share with us their views and comments about this article.

Disclaimer: Comments submitted by third parties on this site are the sole responsibility of the individual(s) whose content is submitted. The Daily Star accepts no responsibility for the content of comment(s), including, without limitation, any error, omission or inaccuracy therein. Please note that your email address will NOT appear on the site.

Alert: If you are facing problems with posting comments, please note that you must verify your email with Disqus prior to posting a comment. follow this link to make sure your account meets the requirements. (http://bit.ly/vDisqus)

CAIRO: As the Egyptian state presses its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the man expected to become president has deployed a new weapon in the battle with the Islamists: his own vision of Islam.

Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who deposed the Brotherhood's Mohammad Morsi and is expected to be elected president later this month, has cast himself as a defender of religion and taken aim at the doctrinal foundations of Islamist groups the state is seeking to crush.

Striking a pious tone that sets him apart from former President Hosni Mubarak, Sisi also appears to be taking on the mantle of a religious reformer.

Sisi has said there is no such thing as a "religious state" – challenging a central Islamist concept.

As the authorities try to curb Islamist influence by tightening control over mosques, Sisi's presidency could bring a sustained effort to reinforce state-backed, apolitical Islam, providing religious cover for destroying his Islamist foes.

Yasser Abdel-Aziz, a columnist who has met Sisi and followed his comments on religion, describes Sisi as a typically "moderate Egyptian" Muslim, distinguishing his approach, for example, from the puritanical Wahabism of Saudi Arabia.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood accuse Sisi of manipulating religion for political gain – the same charge that was made against them.